1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contact element for providing heat transfer from a heat transfer medium to a ceiling and to a ceiling element which comprises such a contact element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various configurations of contact and ceiling elements which can be used for heating ceilings and cooling ceilings and for ceilings which are intended for both heating and cooling are known. A number of such configurations are described in H. Sokolean: “Kühldeckentechnologie zur Erreichung des bestmöglichen Raumkomforts” [Cooling-ceiling technology for achieving the best possible interior conditions], Architektur und Technik 8/92, p. 49-53, B+L Verlags AG, Schlieren (Switzerland).
One of the basic problems of ceiling elements of the type mentioned here has been the task of always ensuring good heat transfer between a heat transfer medium, usually a liquid, which flows through the element, and the ceiling panel, which closes off the ceiling element from the room which is to be conditioned climatically. There are technically satisfactory solutions, such as those which emerge from the abovementioned article, for this problem. It is thus possible for a ceiling element, for example, to be extruded from aluminium in one piece with the ceiling panel and a guide which is arranged on the upper side of said element and into which a copper or steel pipe is passed as corrosion protection with respect to the liquid. However, this configuration involves a high degree of outlay and is correspondingly expensive.
Less expensive solutions are those in which the guide is part of a contact element which is produced separately from the ceiling panel, e.g. is extruded from aluminium or another corrosion-resistant material, and whose contact surface is adhesively bonded in its entirety to the ceiling panel. However, it has been found that, in the case of this intrinsically tried and tested solution, due to the low thermal conductivity of the adhesive, a marked jump in temperature occurs at the adhesive layer despite the low thickness of the same, and this jump in temperature considerably reduces the heating and cooling capacity. In the case of cooling in particular, a considerable proportion of the difference between the desired temperature of the climatically conditioned room and the temperature of the contact element, which has to lie above the dew point, is lost at this point.